Disassembling an item by means of RF energy

ABSTRACT

Technologies are generally described for providing inductively removable assembly bonding. Inductive elements may be placed strategically at bonding locations between two or more coupled components. At disassembly time, the elements may be heated through Radio Frequency (RF) energy causing the bonds to break and components to separate. For example, inductive elements placed near plastic stake bonds between dissimilar materials in an electronic device may be employed to separate the dissimilar materials during a recycling process. According to some examples, the elements may also be heated through a directly applied electric current via a network of connections designed into the assembly.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of International Patent ApplicationSerial No. PCT/US10/37575 filed on Jun. 7, 2010. The disclosures of theInternational Patent Application are hereby incorporated by referencefor all purposes.

BACKGROUND

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in thissection are not prior art to the claims in this application and are notadmitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

Along with advances in electronics and mechanical sciences, progress inmaterial science has resulted in a worldwide consumer economy, wherebillions of assembled items exchange hands every day. Electronic devicesare an illustrative example of consumer goods that include manydifferent materials such as various metal parts, plastics, and similarcomponents integrated through different assembly mechanisms. While manysuch items are designed with reliability, ergonomics, power consumption,and comparable parameters in mind, environmental considerations areincreasingly playing a role in the design of electronic devices andother assembled goods. Recyclability is one of the environmentalconsiderations in designing consumer goods.

The present disclosure appreciates that there are several limitationswith recycling. For example, a typical electronic device may contain anumber of dissimilar materials, which may require distinct recyclingprocesses. Since components of assembled items are typically attached ina variety of ways, disassembling them prior to recycling may be a timeconsuming task. Moreover, due to a variety of assembled item sizes andtypes, it may be difficult to automate the disassembly process at arecycling location, where many different types of items may beprocessed. Mechanical methods such as crushing and separating may resultin mixing of materials reducing the efficiency of the recycling process.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The below described and other features of this disclosure will becomemore fully apparent from the following description and appended claims,taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Understanding thatthese drawings depict only several embodiments in accordance with thedisclosure and are, therefore, not to be considered limiting of itsscope, the disclosure will be described with additional specificity anddetail through use of the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates disassembly of a cooling fan as an exampleimplementation for some embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates a desktop computer enclosure where bonding withinductively heated elements may be implemented;

FIG. 3 illustrates a computing device circuit board with a variety ofmaterials, where bonding with inductively heated elements may beimplemented according to some embodiments to separate the materials atdisassembly;

FIG. 4 illustrates how a front cover of a desktop computer may beseparated from the enclosure of the same device through bonding stakeswith inductively heated elements;

FIG. 5 illustrates a packing crate that may be easily disassembled withstrategically placed inductive heating elements at attachment locations;

FIG. 6 illustrates examples of plastic staking based bonding types,where inductive heating elements may be used to break the assemblybonding;

FIG. 7 illustrates several example inductive heating elements accordingto some embodiments;

FIG. 8 illustrates a conceptual diagram of disassembling computingdevices at a recycle facility in accordance with at least someembodiments described herein; and

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating an example method that may beperformed for assembling and disassembling items with inductive heatingelement using embedded bonding that is arranged in accordance with atleast some embodiments described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings,similar symbols typically identify similar components, unless contextdictates otherwise. The illustrative embodiments described in thedetailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting.Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made,without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matterpresented herein. It will be readily understood that the aspects of thepresent disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated inthe Figures, can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, anddesigned in a wide variety of different configurations, all of which areexplicitly contemplated herein.

This disclosure is generally drawn, inter alia, to methods, apparatus,systems, devices, and/or materials related to inductively removingassembly bonding.

Briefly stated, inductive elements may be placed strategically atbonding locations between two or more coupled components. At disassemblytime, the elements may be heated through Radio Frequency (RF) energycausing the bonds to break and components to separate. For example,inductive elements placed near plastic stake bonds between dissimilarmaterials in an electronic device may be employed to separate thedissimilar materials during a recycling process. According to someembodiments, the elements may also be heated through a directly appliedelectric current via a network of connections designed into theassembly.

FIG. 1 illustrates disassembly of a cooling fan as an exampleimplementation for some embodiments that are arranged in accordance withthe present disclosure. Embodiments may be implemented in any assembledproduct comprising mechanically connected components. Electronic devicesare one category of assembled products, which typically have a varietyof components made from dissimilar materials that are connected throughdifferent mechanisms (e.g., mechanical connections, chemical bonding,solder connections, and/or similar ones).

Different components of an item such as the cooling fan assembly ofdiagram 100 may be connected through staking, which creates aninterference fit between two or more pieces. Typically, one of thepieces may have a hole and the other may have a boss that fits withinthe hole. A tight fit may be used for robustness. A staking punch maythen be used to compress the boss radially to create the interferencefit between the pieces forming a permanent joint. Alternatively, theboss may be a separate piece (not an integrated part of one of thecomponents) that is inserted into matching holes in the components andcompressed in opposing directions to connect the components.

Another approach for forming a bond between different components isthermoplastic staking, also known as heat staking. In thermoplasticstaking, heat is used to deform the plastic boss. A stud protruding fromthe hole in one component (or from both matching holes in case ofseparate boss) may be deformed through softening and/or alteration ofthe stake material forming a head (or two heads) and mechanicallylocking the two components together. Mechanical or thermoplastic stakingenables joining of dissimilar materials such as plastic, metal, ceramic,and/or comparable ones and eliminates a need for mechanical or similarassembly and disassembly techniques.

The cooling fan assembly shown in diagram 100 may include a fan 110,which may be made from plastic, ceramic, and/or metal. Fan 110 may beconnected to cooling element 108 (e.g., a heat sink apparatus) throughmechanical connection (screws 112, 114, etc.). The fan assembly may alsoinclude an electrical connection through cable 106 and connector 102,which may include different plastics and metal (wires). The cooling fanassembly may be assembled and disassembled manually using a screw driver104, which is a time consuming task.

According to at least some embodiments, one or more inductive heatingelements may be embedded into the staking bosses 111 enabling efficientdisassembly of the connected components through application of RF energyto the heating elements. According to other embodiments, the inductiveheating elements may be selected and positioned such that the stakingbosses 111 may be deformed creating the connection through the use ofthe heating elements first and later deformed again (through softeningand/or alteration of the stake material) destroying the connectionsthrough the use of the heating elements again. For example, the stakingbosses 111 may be heated up to a predefined temperature or for apredefined period of time to allow the head(s) to form during assembly.During disassembly, the temperature and/or the heating time may beselected such that the formed heads are melted or broken severing theconnections. According to further embodiments, an electrical network maybe embedded into the assembly of components such that electrical currentmay be provided to the heating elements directly instead of RF inducedheat.

Thus, the screw based connections (112, 114) in the cooling fan assemblymay be replaced with heating element embedded stakes allowing assemblyand/or disassembly of the components through RF energy application.

FIG. 2 illustrates a desktop computer enclosure where bonding withinductively heated elements may be implemented in accordance with atleast some embodiments described herein. As mentioned previously,computers are an illustrative example of assembled products with avariety of components. In recycling computers, a majority of time may bespent manually or automatically disassembling the components. In atypical computer, not only are different components made from dissimilarmaterials, but some components themselves may comprise various materialsas well.

In the computer enclosure 200, the front cover 222 may be attached tothe main enclosure piece 238 through multiple protrusions 226. Each ofthe protrusions 226 may include a hole 224, which may overlap in anassembled position with a corresponding hole 228 on a front part 236 ofthe main enclosure piece 238. An inductive heating element embeddedstake 211 may be placed through the hole-pair and deformed to establisha robust attachment as discussed above.

The main enclosure piece 238 may include a number of different holes 230and 232 of varying sizes and shapes for attachment of additionalcomponents through a similar method. The connections may also beestablished through plastic (or similar) bosses chemically or otherwiseattached (e.g., glued) to the main enclosure piece 238. These bosses maybe protruded through holes in the components and staked employing any ofthe staking methods described above.

FIG. 3 illustrates a computing device circuit board with a variety ofmaterials, where bonding with inductively heated elements may beimplemented according to some embodiments described herein to separatethe materials at disassembly. Circuit board 300 may include a number ofelectrical and/or mechanical components or subassemblies. Each of thecomponents or subassemblies attached to the circuit board 300 maycomprise a single type of material or include a plurality of materials.CPU socket 340 is an example of a multi-material subassembly made ofdifferent materials such as metals and plastic.

Memory connectors 342, card connectors 346, and/or other connectors 344may be made of plastic, while shielded connectors 345 may include acombination of metal and plastic. Circuit board 300 may also include anon-board battery 348. When recycling circuit board 300, disassembly timemay be reduced through the use of heating element embedded stakes (e.g.,311) connecting the circuit board to the individual components. Theassembly may be subjected to a predefined RF field sufficient to heatthe embedded heating elements such that the stakes (e.g., 311) soften ormelt and the connections can be severed through mechanical or otherwiseagitation (e.g., magnetic separation of ferromagnetic parts).

Similar to the above described process, circuit board 300 may beprepared with heating element embedded stakes (e.g., 311) at assemblytime and the stakes (e.g., 311) deformed through the application of anRF field just enough to form a robust attachment. The above discussedprocesses may be applied to the entire circuit board 300 or to a portionof it through a multi-step procedure. For example, sensitive and/orreusable components such as CPU socket 340 may be removed manually.Then, the circuit board may be disassembled as discussed above.

FIG. 4 illustrates how a front cover of a desktop computer may beseparated from the enclosure of the same device through bonding stakeswith inductively heated elements. An assembly/disassembly methodaccording to some of the embodiments may also be utilized in aself-disassembly application.

Computer assembly 400 is an example self-disassembly implementation.While an RF energy source for disassembling products may be placed in arecycling facility (as discussed later) in order to disassemble amultitude of products cost-efficiently, such RF energy source may alsobe built in into the products according to some embodiments. Thus, an RFenergy source 450 may be placed in a strategic location within theenclosure and activated at disassembly time (e.g., through an on-boardswitch). Different components of the computer assembly 400 may beattached using heating element embedded stakes 460, which may soften ormelt when the RF energy source 450 is activated and allowself-disassembly of the computer.

In addition to utilizing the above described mechanism for totaldisassembly, RF energy source 450 may also be placed in a particularlocation such that only a designated component is detached. For example,RF energy source 450 may be placed between the front cover 454 and mainenclosure 452 of the computer assembly 400, which are connected throughstake/hole pairs (460/456) and hinges 458. When activated the RF fieldfrom the RF energy source 450 may soften or melt the bonds between thefront cover 454 and the main enclosure 452 allowing the front cover 452to separate from the main enclosure 452.

FIG. 5 illustrates a packing crate 500 that may be easily disassembledwith strategically placed inductive heating elements at attachmentlocations in accordance with at least some embodiments described herein.As mentioned previously, a heating element embedded staking basedattachment method is not limited to computers or other electricaldevices, but can be implemented in any assembly environment. Packingcrates are another illustrative example. According a further example,the embedded inductively heatable elements with the describedheating/disassembly functionality may be combined with Radio FrequencyIdentification (RFID) technology. RFID functionality may be designedinto the same elements for sorting, tamper-proofing and/or tracking ofthe different materials or parts (electronic parts, top/bottom of crate,etc.) whether for assembly, disassembly, recycling, etc.

A packing crate according to at least some of the embodiments may beassembled and/or disassembled employing heating element embedded stakes569 between the walls 562, 564, and 566 of the crate. At assembly time,the walls 562, 564, and 566 may be held together mechanically and an RFfield applied at sufficient strength (and/or for a sufficient time) todeform the stakes 569 for a robust attachment. At disassembly time, astronger field or a longer application period may be used to soften ormelt the stakes 569 for prompt disassembly of the packing crate 500.Alternatively, a weaker field and/or shorter application period may beemployed based on position of the packing crate and/or application ofexternal forces (e.g., a mechanical pull force on the crate walls).Following the example of FIG. 4, the RF energy source may be placedinside or outside of the packing crate 500 making the crateself-assembling and/or self-disassembling.

FIG. 6 illustrates examples of plastic staking based bonding types,where inductive heating elements may be used to break the assemblybonding in accordance with at least some embodiments described herein.While the example illustrations in diagram 600 are directed todisassembly of connections between dissimilar materials throughinductive heating elements, such elements may also be employed to createthe connections by heating a plastic (or other material) bosssufficiently to form the stakes as discussed previously.

The example stakes 674, 684, and 694 in assemblies 670, 680, and 690create an interference fit or similar connection between two dissimilarmaterials. In the example assemblies of diagram 600, stakes 674, 684,and 694 are an integral part of the lower materials 678, 688, and 698(e.g. plastic). According to other embodiments, the stakes may be formedusing deformable bosses that fit through holes in both materials. Ineach case, an inductively heatable element 672, 682, and 692 is embeddedinto the stake. Of course, more than one element may also be used. Theelements may be any size or shape as discussed in more detail below. Thestakes may be deformed during assembly forming a flush (674), a dome(684), or an internal bond (694) (example of non-interference fit),respectively, between lower and upper element pairs 678/676, 688/686,and 698/696. At disassembly time, the inductive elements may be heatedby application of an RF field softening or melting the stakes andthereby separating the two dissimilar materials.

The attachments may be formed through mechanical compression staking,hot air staking, ultrasonic staking, direct contact heat staking, and/orinfrared staking. The attached materials may be any material including,but not limited to, plastic, metal, ceramic, and/or comparablematerials. The stakes may be made from any form of deformable materialsuch as plastics, polymers, ceramics, and/or composites.

FIG. 7 illustrates several example inductive heating elements accordingto some embodiments of the present disclosure. Inductive heatingelements in an attachment system according to at least some embodimentsmay be made from any inductively excitable material such as metals ormetal embedded ceramics. As illustrated by the example elements 702,704, 706, and 708 of diagram 700, the elements may be formed in variousshapes and sizes to fit a physical shape and/or size of the stakes aswell as the heat that needs to be generated to soften or melt the stake.Some example shapes may include a round spiral (704), an ellipticalspiral (702), or an angled spiral like a triangle (706). Of course,other shapes or forms may also be employed. Other parameters that may beselected based on stake size, type, material (as well as RF energy to beapplied) may include a thickness (diameter) and number of windings ofthe elements.

Since inductive heating also depends on the resistive characteristics ofthe excited material, a type of material to manufacture the elements mayalso be selected according to stake parameters. For example, highlyresistive composite materials such as siliconized carbon fibers may beused to manufacture small heating elements for small stake applications,while larger pure metal elements may be used in larger bondingapplications. Heating element 708 is an example of direct electricalcontact heating. As discussed previously, a network of electricalconnections may be designed into assembled products providing the energydirectly to the heating elements instead of via an RF field according toat least some embodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates a conceptual diagram 800 of disassembling computingdevices at a recycle facility in accordance with at least someembodiments described herein. Disassembly of computing devices may be atime consuming task using conventional attachment technologies. Variouscomponents made from dissimilar materials may have to be separatedthrough manual and/or automated tasks such as removing screws andpivots, unsoldering soldered parts, and similar operations.

However, a computing device assembled through a mechanism according tosome embodiments such as computer 814 and monitor 812 may be subjectedto an RF field 816, which causes the attachments between differentcomponents to be severed through inductively heating embedded elementsin bonding stakes. The assemblies may be subjected to mechanical orotherwise agitation such as shaking, spinning, or magnetic fieldagitation (i.e., separation of ferro-magnetic materials throughapplication of a magnetic field). This in return may result inseparation of dissimilar materials 818, 820, 822, and 824.

The disassembly process may be partially or fully automated reducing thetime needed to disassemble the computing devices through the use ofinductive heating element embedded stakes. For example, an automatedsystem may include controller module 832, which may determine a leveland/or duration of RF field to be generated for heating the embeddedelements. Additionally, a position of an antenna 836 for an RF source834 may also be determined dynamically by the controller module 832. RFsource 834 may be configured (e.g., via controller module 832) toradiate the computing devices (e.g., 812, 814) with generated RF field816 through antenna 836 and cause the stake joints to be severed. Anagitation module 838 may be configured (e.g., via controller module 832)to separate the detached components through mechanical, magnetic, orsimilar agitation. The separated components may then be grouped manuallyor through an automated process controlled by grouping module 840.

While embodiments have been discussed above using specific examples forassemblies, components, materials, and configurations, they are intendedto provide a general guideline to be used for inductively removableassembly bonding. These examples do not constitute a limitation on theembodiments, which may be implemented using other components, materials,heating elements, and configurations using the principles describedherein.

Example embodiments may also include methods. These methods can beimplemented in any number of ways, including the structures describedherein. One such way is by machine operations of devices of the typedescribed in the present disclosure. Another optional way is for one ormore of the individual operations of the methods to be performed inconjunction with one or more human operators performing some of theoperations while other operations are performed by machines. These humanoperators need not be collocated with each other, but each can be onlywith a machine that performs a portion of the program. In otherexamples, the human interaction can be automated such as by pre-selectedcriteria that are machine automated.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating an example method that may beperformed for assembling and disassembling items with inductive heatingelement using embedded bonding that is arranged in accordance with atleast some embodiments described herein. The operations described inblocks 902 and 904 may be performed during assembly of an itemcomprising two or more components, while blocks 912 through 916 may beimplemented at disassembly time by an automated disassembly facility orequipment. The process may be controlled by a computing device ordedicated controller, in which case, the operations of process 900 maybe stored as computer-executable instructions in a computer-readablemedium.

A process of disassembling items with inductive heating element embeddedbonding may begin at assembly time with operation 902, “EMBED BOSSESWITH INDUCTIVELY HEATABLE ELEMENT(S)”. At operation 902, bosses ofvarious sizes, shapes, materials may be embedded with heating elementswhile the bosses are formed in a plastic forming machine or similardevices as discussed above.

Operation 902 may be followed by operation 904, “ATTACH COMPONENTS BYFORMING STAKE JOINTS WITH BOSSES”. At operation 904, the embedded bossesmay be inserted into aligned holes in the components to be attached byan automatic positioning machine and then deformed through a variety ofmethods creating the stake joints such as controlled RF energy heatingprovided by an RF source like RF energy source 834 of FIG. 8. Differentmethods of creating stake joints and types of stake joints are discussedin conjunction with FIG. 6.

The disassembly portion of the process 900 may begin with operation 912,“APPLY RF ENERGY”. At operation 912, RF energy may be applied to theitem to be disassembled by RF energy source 834. The level of the RFenergy may be determined by controller module 832 based on a type andsize of the heating elements; size, shape, and/or type of stakes to besoftened/melted; a distance of the item to the RF energy source; safetyconsiderations; and comparable parameters. The duration of the appliedRF energy may also be adjusted by the controller module 832 based onsimilar considerations as with the level of the applied RF energy. Insome examples, the applied RF energy level may be applied in accordancewith a shaped waveform where the energy level changes over apredetermined time interval such as a pulse waveform, a square-wavewaveform, a ramp waveform (i.e., ramp up or ramp down), a trianglewaveform (i.e., ramp up and down), a sine-wave waveform, or some othervariety of waveform shape, which may be either repeating (i.e. periodic)or non-repeating. In some examples, the applied RF energy may correspondto substantially a single RF frequency, a limited set of RF frequencies,and/or a swept range of RF frequency.

Operation 912 may be followed by operation 914, “APPLY AGITATION.” Atoperation 904, the item with its bonds weakened or removed may besubjected to mechanical or other agitation by agitation module 838 toseparate dissimilar materials from each other. The agitation may beaccomplished with periodic or aperiodic waveforms such as vibration in apattern of pulses with varying frequency, varying time, varying pattern(e.g., pulse followed by ramp, followed by frequency sweep, etc.)

Operation 914 may be followed by operation 916, “SEPARATE DISSIMILARMATERIALS.” At operation 916, the disassembled materials may be furtherseparated and/or collected according to their type by grouping module840. For example, plastics of certain weight may be separated from othertypes of plastics. Similarly, metals may be separated from plasticsand/or ceramics, and so on.

The operations included in the above described process are forillustration purposes. Disassembling items assembled through inductiveheating element embedded bonding stakes may be implemented by similarprocesses with fewer or additional operations. In some examples, theoperations may be performed in a different order. In some otherexamples, various operations may be eliminated. In still other examples,various operations may be divided into additional operations, orcombined together into fewer operations.

There is little distinction left between hardware and softwareimplementations of aspects of systems implementing assembly ordisassembly methods like the ones described above. The use of hardwareor software is generally (but not always, in that in certain contextsthe choice between hardware and software may become significant) adesign choice representing cost vs. efficiency tradeoffs. There arevarious vehicles by which processes and/or systems and/or othertechnologies described herein may be effected (e.g., hardware, software,and/or firmware), and that the preferred vehicle will vary with thecontext in which the processes and/or systems and/or other technologiesare deployed. For example, if an implementer determines that speed andaccuracy are paramount, the implementer may opt for a mainly hardwareand/or firmware vehicle; if flexibility is paramount, the implementermay opt for a mainly software implementation; or, yet againalternatively, the implementer may opt for some combination of hardware,software, and/or firmware.

The foregoing detailed description has set forth various embodiments ofthe devices and/or processes via the use of block diagrams, flowcharts,and/or examples. Insofar as such block diagrams, flowcharts, and/orexamples contain one or more functions and/or operations, it will beunderstood by those within the art that each function and/or operationwithin such block diagrams, flowcharts, or examples may be implemented,individually and/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software,firmware, or virtually any combination thereof. In one embodiment,several portions of the processes according to the subject matterdescribed herein may be implemented via Application Specific IntegratedCircuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), digital signalprocessors (DSPs), or other integrated formats. However, those skilledin the art will recognize that some aspects of the embodiments disclosedherein, in whole or in part, may be equivalently implemented inintegrated circuits, as one or more computer programs running on one ormore computers (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or morecomputer systems), as one or more programs running on one or moreprocessors (e.g. as one or more programs running on one or moremicroprocessors), as firmware, or as virtually any combination thereof,and that designing the circuitry and/or writing the code for thesoftware and or firmware would be well within the skill of one of skillin the art in light of this disclosure.

The present disclosure is not to be limited in terms of the particularembodiments described in this application, which are intended asillustrations of various aspects. Many modifications and variations canbe made without departing from its spirit and scope, as will be apparentto those skilled in the art. Functionally equivalent methods andapparatuses within the scope of the disclosure, in addition to thoseenumerated herein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art from theforegoing descriptions. Such modifications and variations are intendedto fall within the scope of the appended claims. The present disclosureis to be limited only by the terms of the appended claims, along withthe full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. It isto be understood that this disclosure is not limited to particularmethods, reagents, compounds compositions or biological systems, whichcan, of course, vary. It is also to be understood that the terminologyused herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodimentsonly, and is not intended to be limiting.

In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that themechanisms of the processes according to the subject matter describedherein are capable of being distributed as a program product in avariety of forms, and that an illustrative embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein applies regardless of the particular type ofsignal bearing medium used to actually carry out the distribution.Examples of a signal bearing medium include, but are not limited to, thefollowing: a recordable type medium such as a floppy disk, a hard diskdrive, a Compact Disc (CD), a Digital Video Disk (DVD), a digital tape,a computer memory, etc.; and a transmission type medium such as adigital and/or an analog communication medium (e.g., a fiber opticcable, a waveguide, a wired communications link, a wirelesscommunication link, etc.).

Those skilled in the art will recognize that it is common within the artto describe devices and/or processes in the fashion set forth herein,and thereafter use engineering practices to integrate such describeddevices and/or processes into data processing systems. That is, at leasta portion of the devices and/or processes described herein may beintegrated into a data processing system via a reasonable amount ofexperimentation. Those having skill in the art will recognize that atypical data processing system generally includes one or more of asystem unit housing, a video display device, a memory such as volatileand non-volatile memory, processors such as microprocessors and digitalsignal processors, computational entities such as operating systems,drivers, graphical user interfaces, and applications programs, one ormore interaction devices, such as a touch pad or screen, and/or controlsystems including feedback loops and control motors (e.g., feedback forsensing destruction of bonds in assembled products, temperature levelsin stakes, and similar ones).

A typical assembly or disassembly system may be implemented utilizingany suitable commercially available components, such as those typicallyfound in recycling or manufacturing systems. The herein describedsubject matter sometimes illustrates different components containedwithin, or connected with, different other components. It is to beunderstood that such depicted architectures are merely exemplary, andthat in fact many other architectures may be implemented which achievethe same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement ofcomponents to achieve the same functionality is effectively “associated”such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any twocomponents herein combined to achieve a particular functionality may beseen as “associated with” each other such that the desired functionalityis achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermediate components.Likewise, any two components so associated may also be viewed as being“operably connected”, or “operably coupled”, to each other to achievethe desired functionality, and any two components capable of being soassociated may also be viewed as being “operably couplable”, to eachother to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples ofoperably couplable include but are not limited to physically connectableand/or physically interacting components and/or wirelessly interactableand/or wirelessly interacting components and/or logically interactingand/or logically interactable components.

With respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singularterms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from theplural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as isappropriate to the context and/or application. The varioussingular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sakeof clarity.

It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, termsused herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of theappended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term“including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” theterm “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term“includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,”etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if aspecific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such anintent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence ofsuch recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid tounderstanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of theintroductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claimrecitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed toimply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinitearticles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing suchintroduced claim recitation to embodiments containing only one suchrecitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases“one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or“an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one”or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articlesused to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specificnumber of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, thoseskilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should beinterpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the barerecitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, means at leasttwo recitations, or two or more recitations).

Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “atleast one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a constructionis intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understandthe convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C”would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone,C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A,B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a conventionanalogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general sucha construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the artwould understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one ofA, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have Aalone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and Ctogether, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be furtherunderstood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive wordand/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in thedescription, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplatethe possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, orboth terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood toinclude the possibilities of “A” or, “B” or “A and B.”

In addition, where features or aspects of the disclosure are describedin terms of Markush groups, those skilled in the art will recognize thatthe disclosure is also thereby described in terms of any individualmember or subgroup of members of the Markush group.

As will be understood by one skilled in the art, for any and allpurposes, such as in terms of providing a written description, allranges disclosed herein also encompass any and all possible subrangesand combinations of subranges thereof. Any listed range can be easilyrecognized as sufficiently describing and enabling the same range beingbroken down into at least equal halves, thirds, quarters, fifths,tenths, etc. As a non-limiting example, each range discussed herein canbe readily broken down into a lower third, middle third and upper third,etc. As will also be understood by one skilled in the art all languagesuch as “up to,” “at least,” “greater than,” “less than,” and the likeinclude the number recited and refer to ranges which can be subsequentlybroken down into subranges as discussed above. Finally, as will beunderstood by one skilled in the art, a range includes each individualmember. Thus, for example, a group having 1-3 cells refers to groupshaving 1, 2, or 3 cells. Similarly, a group having 1-5 cells refers togroups having 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 cells, and so forth.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, otheraspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art.The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes ofillustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scopeand spirit being indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for facilitating disassembly of an itemthat is attached to a component, the method comprising: wirelesslyapplying a first Radio Frequency (RF) energy to one or more embeddedbosses located in the item to initiate deformation of the one or moreembedded bosses located in the item, wherein each of the one or moreembedded bosses includes an inductor that is configured to generate heatreactive to the first RF energy such that the embedded bosses aredeformed, and wherein the item is attached to the component with the oneor more embedded bosses; and separating the components from the itemafter the first RF energy initiates deformation of the one or moreembedded bosses located in the item.
 2. The method according to claim 1,further comprising attaching the components to the item by: positioningthe embedded bosses to fit into holes in the components; applying asecond RF energy to the item such that the embedded bosses are deformedcreating a stake joint between the components, wherein the stake jointis deformable in response to the first RF energy, which is differentfrom the second RF energy.
 3. The method according to claim 2, furthercomprising: deforming the bosses to form one of: a flush stake, a domestake, or an internal stake.
 4. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising attaching the components to the item by: positioning theembedded bosses to fit into holes in the components; deforming theembedded bosses through one or more of: mechanical force, direct contactheat deformation, hot air deformation, and/or ultrasonic deformation. 5.The method according to claim 1, further comprising attaching thecomponents to the item by one or more of: aligning holes in two or morecomponents and inserting a boss to the holes for a tight fit, andaligning holes in one or more components with a boss integrated intoanother component and inserting the boss to the holes for a tight fit.6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising manufacturing theinductor as a coil.
 7. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising applying the first RF energy by generating an RF field. 8.The method according to claim 7, further comprising adjusting a waveformof the RF field based on one or more characteristics of the inductorand/or the bosses in the assembled item.
 9. The method according toclaim 7, wherein the one or more characteristics of inductor correspondto one or more of a size, a shape, a thickness, and/or a type of theinductor.
 10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the one or morecharacteristics of the bosses correspond to one or more of a size, ashape, and/or a type of the bosses.
 11. The method according to claim 7,further comprising adjusting a waveform of the RF field based on apredefined period, wherein the waveform includes one or more of a pulsewaveform, a square-wave waveform, a ramp up waveform, a ramp downwaveform, a triangle waveform, and/or a sine-wave waveform.
 12. Themethod according to claim 7, further comprising adjusting a waveform ofthe RF field based on safety considerations.
 13. The method according toclaim 7, further comprising generating the RF field from a source thatis coupled to the assembled item.
 14. The method according to claim 1,further comprising separating the components by either mechanicallyagitating the item or magnetically separating the item.